lights you regret buying? why?

[Arthur Pinetree]

I've regretted purchasing anything "cheap," like from the flashlight bin at the big box stores. The more I've come to appreciate quality gear, the more I've wanted to invest in the equipment. But I can't just chuck the old stuff, because it works however imperfectly. So I'm stuck in the middle now.

 

[GatorMedic]

I don't necessarily have any regrets about a particular model of flashlight. It took me some time and purchases to figure out what works best for me, so all the lights along the way helped me as a learning experience of what I need in a flashlight. I've since sold or given away most of these "stepping stone" lights so it worked out well enough. However, I do regret the amount of flashlights I bought as I tended to buy multiples of all of them. Once I discovered how useful flashlights and headlamps were I went from 1 or none to 24 as I felt I needed to have them anywhere and everywhere. I have absolutely no need for that many flashlights. That's why I recently went on a selling spree and now feel much better. 16 is still way more than I need, but it's a more manageable number.

 

[WHYWOULDITEXT]

As others mentioned before ; The first version of the Costco Techlite Lumen Master... Though I usually stay away from lights in 3xAAA format, I Got convinced by some folks here on CPF to get it and it truly was a piece of cr@p.

I heard the Lumen Master 200 is better... Not going to try lol:laughing:

 

[ForrestChump]

Every light besides Malkoff, HDS, McGizmo and the SL Polytac.

Reliability / Design.

 

[uofaengr]

I'm relatively new to lights still so I'm always seeing something that's piqueing my interest and afraid I'm going to end up buying a lot to figure out what works for me best. I'm a knife nut and over a few years have bought and sold many cheap and expensive knives because I had to know if I liked them, and now I've finally got it whittled to what I like. I've bought four lights in 2 months, basically covering all my essential bases. I went 2 or 3 years with my 2 Surefires thinking they were the end all be all. Little did I know I don't even really care for their tint lol.

So no regrets yet, though I've toiled the past few days in my mind that I should've bought the newer SC5w instead of the SC52w. After a lot of thinking and reading and playing with the light, I think I made the right choice.

 

[WarRaven]

I'm relatively new to lights still so I'm always seeing something that's piqueing my interest and afraid I'm going to end up buying a lot to figure out what works for me best. I'm a knife nut and over a few years have bought and sold many cheap and expensive knives because I had to know if I liked them, and now I've finally got it whittled to what I like. I've bought four lights in 2 months, basically covering all my essential bases. I went 2 or 3 years with my 2 Surefires thinking they were the end all be all. Little did I know I don't even really care for their tint lol.

So no regrets yet, though I've toiled the past few days in my mind that I should've bought the newer SC5w instead of the SC52w. After a lot of thinking and reading and playing with the light, I think I made the right choice.

Good post, beaming from the soul.

+1

The, is this the one search, is unavoidable.
It's part and parcel of the journey of interests to oneself.

 

[Monocrom]

As others mentioned before ; The first version of the Costco Techlite Lumen Master... Though I usually stay away from lights in 3xAAA format, I Got convinced by some folks here on CPF to get it and it truly was a piece of cr@p.

I heard the Lumen Master 200 is better... Not going to try lol:laughing:

3xAAA set-up in a battery-carrier? Who the Hell gave a cheap set-up like that the thumbs up?

 

[Rider57]

For me it was the Coast HPI, very prominent donut hole beam, yellow ish tint, horrible tail switch. Was very disappointed with it even though it should of been better than the sk68.

 

[Cordyceps]

Thrunite TN12 mod. 2014

Absolutely horrible mode button placement. Having to re-grab for on/off or switching modes is just dumb. Most useless strobo access - turn on, re-grab, hold mode button for 1.5sec.....

 

[uofaengr]

Thrunite TN12 mod. 2014

Absolutely horrible mode button placement. Having to re-grab for on/off or switching modes is just dumb. Most useless strobo access - turn on, re-grab, hold mode button for 1.5sec.....

After I got my SC62w today after getting the TN12 last week, I think I'm regretting this same purchase also...

 

[j12730]

I went crazy on some of the older strike bezel surefires back in the day. It was just too much money tied up

 

[recDNA]

I regret lights I failed to purchase when available (black e1e etc) more than lights I did purchase. To regret a purchase I would both be unable to return to seller and be unable to sell it myself. I won't sell a light that doesn't work as intended. I find now it is much harder to sell lights here than it was in cpfmp. I used to get thousands of viewer hits there. Far fewer here. Makes it much harder to sell. You see a lot more lights languish for sale here for weeks only to be withdrawn. What that means is I may well regret a FUTURE purchase far more than any I've made before. Before if it worked perfectly but I didn't like it I sold it. If it didn't work well I returned it. I've never had a dealer refuse to take back a defective light.

I regretted selling my tk40. Does that count?

 

[gunga]

I kind of notice slower traffic for sales here too. Kind of a shame...

I regretted buying a Lumapower M3 transformer in the day. Too big and bulky for what it did, the mode switching was flaky, and it gave a lot of configuration options. Too bad they all sucked. This is ancient history though. Lately I somewhat regret buying too many decent but not awesome cheap lights. They are fun to get, have pretty good features and such, but are just kind of mediocre to me, surpassed by too many of my higher dollar, more customized or just higher end lights I prefer carrying.

The cheaper ones have been good (sometime amazing) values for what they can do, but after buying them they sort of just languish... Probably good for backups, gifting, or bail out bags I guess.

 

[slumber]

I regret lights I failed to purchase when available (black e1e etc) more than lights I did purchase.

And to think LAPG had those E1E's on clearance for around $44 when they were discontinued. I regret not picking up a few dozen.

 

[slumber]

Delete

 

[Toohotruk]

...I find now it is much harder to sell lights here than it was in cpfmp. I used to get thousands of viewer hits there. Far fewer here. Makes it much harder to sell. You see a lot more lights languish for sale here for weeks only to be withdrawn. What that means is I may well regret a FUTURE purchase far more than any I've made before. Before if it worked perfectly but I didn't like it I sold it. If it didn't work well I returned it. I've never had a dealer refuse to take back a defective light.

I regretted selling my tk40. Does that count?

I miss the CPFMP too...I bought a lot of lights on there and there seemed to be more variety. I get the feeling sellers just don't like the Panjo way of doing things, so they sell their stuff elsewhere. :shrug:

Edit: I would have bought a few black E1Es too...I did get a few SF lights on clearance for cheap though, a couple of C2 HAs, a couple of 9Ps, an E2E, a 6P Defender, etc. Wish I would have bought more of everything now.

 

[marinemaster]

Had a SC52 on the new Panjo, it never sold had to withdraw. I don't like it.
The rate should be like $1 per item maybe $2 max.
It definitely kept me from buying new light so I don't have to sell them.

 

[recDNA]

Had a SC52 on the new Panjo, it never sold had to withdraw. I don't like it.
The rate should be like $1 per item maybe $2 max.
It definitely kept me from buying new light so I don't have to sell them.

SC52 is a nice light too. Seems like the trend now is toward neutral tints. That may have made it more difficult. It's all about number of views.
I've been giving it a lot of thought and I have come up with a category of lights I regret buying:hosts. Solarforce flashlight hosts are not valuable enough to resell nor is 6P. I still use several but I prefer my factory made lights. The hosts aren't valuable enough to resell and most of my P60 are outdated. I do have one Sportac triple nichia in a Z2 I still like.

 

[WarRaven]

I sense this thread going to get busy today.
Just a hunch.

 

[tolkaze]

Nextorch. the first of the AA programable ones. Sounded kinda cool, program your own levels with your computer, through USB... but it was just varying levels of bad PWM. It was probably measured in dozens of flashes per second once you got below mid brightness.

Led Lenser (forget the model.. maybe a P7) no regulation, flood to zoom is bad in all lights like this, and have to hold for brightest level. Flood to zoom probably killed it for me. With the zoom engaged, there was no spill (fair enough) but you lost a lot of lumens overall. Flood was okay, but it still had a sharp boundary, and was just bad to use. Oh yeah, and no water resistance. Sold it pretty quickly and bought an eagletac t20c2 with the proceeds.

So many other disapointing lights were cheapies bought on impulse because they might be okay hahaha